Jurgen Klopp to Liverpool: Will new manager install futuristic £2m training machine at Melwood?

The Footbonaut described as a 'perfect tool' by Klopp

(YouTube)

Liverpool may be about to get a secret machine from the future to help turn their fortunes around.

Maybe not quite the future, as Borussia Dortmund have used it since 2012, but the Footbonaut has been credited with helping the German club develop and improve a number of players.

The Berlin-made machine feeds balls into a player inside a cage, firing them from different angles and at different speeds.

The player in the middle must control the ball and pace it into one of 64 panels which are lit up, with the results said to improve reactions, ball control and passing.

Made by Christian Guttler, it is said to cost around £2.3million to install. Dortmund and fellow Bundesliga club Hoffenheim are the only two sides currently using the system in world football.

But in Klopp, the machine has won a massive fan.

"It is the perfect tool to improve ball-handling skills," said Klopp in 2013. "It demands precise skills used at speed in a physically tough environment. It´s quite a package!"

Former Dortmund star Mario Gotze, now of Bayern Munich added: "I can only recommend it, it's something amazing. It's a good opportunity to improve yourself technically, and get better vision, better passing game. It works on your weak points and it's a good way to practice."